Public Art

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Photographer Maggie West is rethinking who's worthy of being immortalized in stained glass. In an artist statement, she writes, "Throughout history, most women depicted in stained glass artwork are saints. The majority of these saints were virgins, many of whom suffered gruesome violent deaths rather than lose their 'purity.' ... Rather...

On Friday, July 14, partiers gathered at Figat7th to get into spirit-animal mode as they celebrated fantastical creatures from the imagination of artist Jason Hackenwerth. The sculptor's medium of choice is the latex balloon: He inflates hundreds at a time and strings them together in unusual forms and predetermined color patterns to create sculptures resembling animals, insects, aliens or other colorful creatures. But for this installation, he worked in nylon and vinyl to create three large-scale, internally lit, inflated sculptures based on his famous balloon designs. These sculptures tower over the viewer at 20 to 30 feet high and will be on display for nine days in downtown L.A. Clubgoers danced among whimsical wearable sculptures fabricated out of balloons as they bounced to the beat of the Quiet Clubbing DJs.

Come June 17 and 18, the Pasadena Chalk Festival will return for its 25th year. In the meantime, the Pasadena Museum of History is hosting "Art in the Street: 25 Years of the Pasadena Chalk Festival," an exhibit that looks back at some of the most mind-blowing work to ever grace a sidewalk. The exhibit runs through Aug. 13, and there's a free opening reception on Sunday, April 9, from 1 to 4 p.m.

Since it opened to the public in Pasadena in 1998, the Bunny Museum's collection of rabbit-related objects has swelled to 33,000. To give everyone a little more space to breathe, married proprietors Candace Frazee and Steve Lubanski recently relocated their record-breaking rabbit hoard to a brand new space (that also serves as their home) in Altadena. On Monday, they hosted a Grand Hoppenin' Party, inviting people to peek around the new space and admire the collection, which includes everything from former pets (taxidermied bunnies) to famous bunnies to bunny puzzles and plush dolls. For the meager sum of $8, you too can experience the bunny business going on at the museum.

From Doug Aitken's mirrored Mirage house to Claudia Comte's wavy wall called Curves and Zigzags, the site-specific exhibition Desert X has turned the Coachella Valley and its environs into an open-air art gallery. Susan Davis, founder and president of Desert X, which opened to the public on Feb. 25, described the exhibition to L.A. Weekly's Liz Ohanesian as a "treasure hunt." Ohanesian concurs, saying, "You can't be quite sure what you'll find. At its best moments, Desert X will present you with more than just a glimpse of art." If you don't have time to drive out to the desert before the exhibit closes on April 30, get an eyeful right here.